# What's the longest and shortest time period covered by a (fictional) book you've read? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 22, 2009, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295 "2009-08-22T07:31:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2017, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295/61 "2017-04-11T20:31:40Z")
> [@Damfino](#): > > The main action of \*The Taking of Pelham One Two Three \* takes place within an hour, which is the deadline for the ransom. It’s a long time since I’ve read it, so I can’t remember how much takes place outside this frame, if at all. A few minutes here and there, maybe. Well, the hijackers give the city one hour to gather the ransom before they start executing hostages, but this demand only comes after they board and seize the train. Even then, they allow the city a slight time concession, agreeing to hold off the execution if the money can be delivered to the nearest station. Then after they get the ransom, they take some time rigging their hijacked locomotive to drive off without them, there is some arguing, etc., and the end of the novel takes place that night with the arrest. I’d say the timeframe is less than 8 hours overall. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2017, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295/62 "2017-04-11T20:40:13Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > It doesn’t start at the Big Bang. At least, the creation it describes is in no way comparable to the Big Bang. And internal evidence implies that it covers a time period of a few thousand years at most. Well, [this comic book](http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Super-Villain_Classics_Vol_1_1) actually starts _before_ the Big Bang, the conceit being that the last survivor of the previous universe dives his spaceship into what is basically the furnace of an ongoing Big Crunch and merges with that universe’s sentience, creating the lifeform which will eventually become known as Galactus, released into the new universe shortly after its Big Bang. If we assume events continue to the “present” (though I admit we have no particular reason to, since no Earth-based characters appear that I can recall), the timespan is ~14 billion years. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2017, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295/63 "2017-04-11T21:36:11Z")
_A Canticle for Leibowitz_ by Walter M. Miller, Jr. is another science fiction novel stretched out over a long period. The first part takes place in the 26th century, the second in the 32nd century, and the last in the 38th century. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2017, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295/64 "2017-04-11T21:48:21Z")
In Robert E. Howard’s “The Striking of the Gong”, King Kull goes on a trip through the cosmos and returns, all in the time it takes for a gong to sound. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2017, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295/65 "2017-04-11T21:53:38Z")
Longest would be the Hitchhiker’s Guide series that has Marvin live billions of years, and then get sent back in time and live billions of years again, and then a third time. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2017, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295/66 "2017-04-11T23:22:49Z")
[Tau Zero by Poul Anderson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_Zero) covers a span of time from the near future to the end of this universe, though the Big Crunch (cyclical cosmology), and several billion years into the the new universe to find a suitable planet to colonize. ---
**Author:** ![SuperNelson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@SuperNelson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperNelson)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2017, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295/67 "2017-04-11T23:42:58Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > [Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Gently%27s_Holistic_Detective_Agency) goes from just before the beginning of life on earth to (roughly) the present day. Not, admittedly, in that order. That would be about 3 billion years or so. > > There’s also an Asimov short story that begins in the present day (well, 1950’s or whatever) and ends after the heat death of the universe (I know we’ve discussed it here before - “The last question” I think it’s called?) > > _Ivan Denisovitch_ was going to be my pick for “shortest”. Anyone know or remember what season it was meant to be set in? 'Cos if it was winter that would only be about 5 hours, dawn to dusk… And Adams spans all but the last few hundred years of those billions with one brilliant sentence: “And time began seriously to pass.” ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295/68 "2017-04-12T00:03:02Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > It doesn’t start at the Big Bang. At least, the creation it describes is in no way comparable to the Big Bang. And internal evidence implies that it covers a time period of a few thousand years at most. I am not sure what you mean? In the beginning, the beginning of all things, the heavens and the earth are created. granted, not a lot of detail is given to anything outside earth, no one living out there to talk to, and earth is barely explainable in a way our predecessor can grasp let alone the universe, but still it begins there. As far as a few thousand years, there is a few billion years passing between His 1st and 2nd day like maybe 10? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295/69 "2017-04-12T14:26:53Z")
[Novels whose stories take place within one day](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=595704) ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295/70 "2017-04-12T18:39:17Z")
Shortest movie: “Top Quark”, starring Tom cruise. Dennis ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295/71 "2017-04-12T21:05:13Z")
Can we include TV episodes? \*Star Trek: Voyager \*had one or two great pisodes. Arguably the best was [Blink of an Eye](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blink_of_an_Eye_(Star_Trek:_Voyager)). The action takes place over the course of several thousand years, from the Stone Age to space flight. It also takes place over the course of a few hours. There was a Twilight Zone episode with a similar timeframe. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295/72 "2017-04-13T18:37:29Z")
Don Robertson’s 1965 novel “The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread” covers the time it takes for a 9-year-old boy to walk to a friend’s house on October 20, 1944, the date of the devastating East Ohio Gas storage tank explosion in Cleveland. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2017, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295/73 "2017-04-15T06:34:49Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Well, _2001_ starts off before the evolution of homo sapiens, and ends in the year 2001, so that’s a good long stretch. > [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > The short story _Incident at owl Creek Bridge_ takes place in the time it takes a body to drop from the bridge to the end of the rope. He’s not bungee jumping, either. I missed this thread the first time around, but those were the first two stories I thought of. Prehistory to imagined events a few years ago, and how long it takes for one of us to have their neck broken. Pretty nice bookends, really. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2017, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295/74 "2017-04-15T08:41:59Z")
I know they’re not the longest, but in the past few months Ive read two books that covered a century or more. Mordecai Richler’s “Solomon Gursky Was Here”, and Phillip Meyer’s “The Son”. Both very highly recommended, by the way, loaded with historical references. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2017, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295/75 "2017-04-15T09:54:51Z")
_Diaspora_, by Greg Egan, takes place over at least 90 billion years. In fact it’s probably far more than that–perhaps trillions of years–but 90 billion is given as a bare minimum. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2017, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295/76 "2017-04-15T14:15:25Z")
Science fiction has the long end pretty well covered with a wide variety of novels on cosmological timescales, but I’m surprised nobody’s come up with some experimental concept novel that takes place entirely in the span of a microsecond, or the like. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2017, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295/77 "2017-04-15T14:47:09Z")
In “The Secret Miracle” by Jorge Luis Borges, exterior time stops for a writer who is about to be executed by firing squad. He spends the next year in his own mental time writing (in his mind) the play in verse he’s always planned which he considers to be his masterpiece. He finishes it in his mind, time begins again in the exterior world, and he dies when the bullets hit him. It isn’t the entire story, but it’s about one page of the five pages of the story. That part of the story lasts no time at all in the exterior world. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2017, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295/78 "2017-04-15T15:19:08Z")
> [@Rayne\_Man](#): > > I know it’s cheating slightly (because there are several books), but Asimov’s _Foundation_ series spans 20,000 years. Along the same lines, the _Lensman_ series begins long before the earth is formed, and ends in an indeterminate but presumably far future time. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2017, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295/79 "2017-04-15T19:22:20Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Science fiction has the long end pretty well covered with a wide variety of novels on cosmological timescales, but I’m surprised nobody’s come up with some experimental concept novel that takes place entirely in the span of a microsecond, or the like. Arthur C. Clarke wrote a Cold War short story about a professional thief hired to steal the masterpieces from London museums by an odd visitor who lends him a gadget with the power to stop time. IIRC it turns out that the visitor is an alien from the distant future, long after the Earth has been destroyed in a superbomb test gone catastrophically wrong; the aliens want to save our artistic treasures before they are lost. The thief sees from a newspaper that the test will be later that day - he can remain in stopped-time forever, unable to talk to anyone, or turn off the gadget and share in the fate of the rest of humanity. ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2017, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295/80 "2017-04-22T11:27:44Z")
James A. Michener wrote the historical novel **Alaska** , which starts with the formation of the North American continent and ends with Alaska being made the 49th state of the Union. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-and-shortest-time-period-covered-by-a-fictional-book-youve-read/507295.md?page=5)